By Charles Pederson
Picking up the story from Part 1, read on to find out how the Shakopee bank robbery of December 9, 1929, turned out.
A parade in downtown Shakopee, 1927. First National Bank is believed to be the third building from the right. SCHS Collection.
Contemporary newspaper stories about the 1929 Shakopee robbery gleefully threw around hard-boiled turns of phrase that are nearly cinematic: “bandit trio,” “loot,” and “rattle of machine guns, crack of rifles and roar of shotguns”; the robbers were “mowed down.” Yet even this exaggerated language hardly does the scene justice.
Charles Brown, of the Minnesota Bankers Protective Association, described the intensity of the action:
“I turned my machine gun on them. At the same time, Sheriff Weckman opened up and so did Lester Brown, one of his deputies. Gregory Hartman, who operates a butcher shop across the street from the bank, then started firing with a rifle from an upstairs window.
One of the robbers tried to run down the street, but fell in front of a drug store next to the bank.
The third bandit ran inside the bank. I ran after him with the machine gun. He kept on going and went out the back door [where Tiedt filled him with hot lead].”
The Midday Ride of “Paul Revere”
Meanwhile, C. A. Manaige, age 82, veteran of the Civil War, gained his 15 minutes of fame as the “Paul Revere” of the day. Manaige happened to be driving his horse and buggy down a Shakopee street. Hearing gunshots, he realized what was happening. One newspaper writer had him “swinging his whip over his mare’s flank, . . . and beard flying in the wind, he shouted as he went, ‘Hey—the bank is being held up. Everybody out, get out your guns.’”
Another account, playing up the “Paul Revere” angle, stated, “The horse reared and galloped down the street, with Mr. Manaige shouting: ‘The bank’s being robbed! The bank’s being robbed!’”
What Happened Afterward
The three robbers had been wounded numerous times. Or as news reports put it, they were “riddled from head to foot” with bullets. The robbers were taken to nearby locations to have their wounds tended. Despite their wounds, all three survived. Accounts stated that the entire encounter took five minutes. But in that brief time, “the windows of the [escape vehicle] were shot away, the bank windows were broken, as were the windows of several neighboring stores, and bullets were lodged in walls and doorways for more than 100 feet.” Although a crowd had gathered at the sound of gunfire, amazingly—and despite the sheer poundage of the rain of lead—only the robbers were injured.
Sheriff Weckman stated he would file charges against the three men, needlessly adding that only two would be charged if the seriously injured McNearney died. In fact, McNearney did not die, but one of McKusick’s legs was so badly shot up that it had to be amputated. The third robber, George Larkin, was moved from the jail to the sheriff’s house for additional medical help. Later at trial, all three were given life sentences.
It is even possible that the men had additional mayhem in mind. The December 9, 1929, St. Paul Dispatch reported that, in the trunk of the getaway vehicle, authorities discovered hundreds of rounds of additional ammunition, bottles of illegal alcohol, and a new clothesline, “believed to be for the purpose of binding victims in case this became necessary.”
The Minnesota Bankers Association showed their gratitude for the efforts to protect their investments. They rewarded Weckman and Brown with $500 each; Tiedt and Hartman each received $250.
Unexpected Fame
The robbery garnered state, national, and even international attention. Contemporary news outlets placed Shakopee squarely in the world spotlight.
The Northfield News congratulated the foiling of the robbery. The citizens of Northfield—site of the famous James-Younger gang’s bank robbery of September 1876—had repelled the gang in a similar shootout 50 years earlier. The News, a local Northfield newspaper, alluded to the gunplay: “‘Say it with bullets’ is the motto every city should adopt when staging a reception” for bank robbers.
The New York Times produced a map under the heading “Interesting Places in News of the World.” Shakopee was highlighted, along with information about the “daring bank robbery” and its link to the Northfield gunfight.
The story reached as far as New Zealand. An Associated Press story in the Christchurch Star described the action in “the quiet village of Shakopee, Minnesota.” No doubt part of such foreign fascination lay in the fact that “more than 100 shots were fired,” playing into people’s views of the United States as the rough and unsettled Wild West.
And coming full circle, employees of the Belle Plaine First National Bank later identified McNearney, McKusick, and Larkin as the December 5 robbers of that institution.
Truly, the 35-day crime spree of 1929 left its stunning mark on Scott County. But time heals all wounds, and today, only faint echoes remain of those violent events of 90 years ago.
First National Bank of Shakopee, 1958. SCHS Collection.
Further Reading:
Maccabee, Paul. (n.d.). Where to find Dillinger’s hideout and Ma Barker’s boys.
Minnesota Corrections Association. (2018). A timeline of crime, corrections, and MCA.
Romer, Christina D. (n.d.). Great Depression. (Britannica.com.)
Ross, Jim. (2020, August 1). Savage’s notorious past of gambling, gaming and guzzling.
St. Paul Hotel. (n.d.). Make history yours.
Just for fun: Doyle, Arthur Conan. (1967). The adventure of the Copper Beeches. In W. S. Baring-Gould (ed.), The complete Sherlock Holmes. Clarkson S. Potter. (Original work published 1892.)
